Recruitment officers beat draftees to force them to go to the front lines, a captured Ukrainian soldier told the Russian Defense Ministry<\/p>\n
Ukrainian draft officials use violence to force conscripts to go to the front line, a captured soldier has told the Russian military.
\nIn a video released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Monday, a man identified as Nikolay Timchenko claimed that draft officials treat conscripts as expendable \u201ccannon fodder\u201d and ignore their health conditions.
\nAccording to Timchenko, he was detained at home by police and recruitment officers after failing to report to a draft office upon receiving a call-up notice. He said he was \u201cthrown into a cellar,\u201d where his protests about having health issues were ignored.
\nTimchenko claimed that around 50 other men were being held with him, including some with disabilities, all of whom were forced into service.
\n\u201cThe draft officers were hitting us on the ribs and the head,\u201d he said, adding that their ID papers were confiscated and that he did not receive a salary. He said he told the officers he \u201cdidn\u2019t want to fight in a war,\u201d but was drafted anyway.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Complaints about \u2018illegal\u2019 Ukrainian mobilization double \u2013 ombudsman<\/p>\n
The alleged mistreatment continued at the training center, where, according to Timchenko, recruits were beaten with the butts of assault rifles for failing to follow orders.
\nHe added that when he was deployed to the partially encircled Donbass city of Krasnoarmeysk (known as Pokrovsk in Ukraine), he saw \u201cmany people lying on the road, both dead and wounded.\u201d
\n\u201cWhen we saw it, we realized that we were just cannon fodder sent to die,\u201d Timchenko said, adding that he decided to surrender after spending days without food and resorting to drinking rainwater.
\nUkraine\u2019s mobilization campaign has been marred by widespread draft evasion, protests, and allegations of corruption. Videos of officers ambushing men on the streets and shoving them into vans have gone viral, causing outrage on social media. The Ukrainian parliamentary human rights commissioner, Dmitry Lubinets, reported last week that the complaints about \u201cillegal\u201d mobilization have doubled since early June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recruitment officers beat draftees to force them to go to the front lines, a captured Ukrainian soldier told the Russian Defense Ministry Ukrainian draft officials use violence to force conscripts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t